Title: Teacher leadership in South African schools

Authors: Tsediso Michael Makoelle; Thabo Makhalemele

Addresses: Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan 010000, Kazakhstan ' School of Psycho-social Education, University of North-West, Vaal Triangle, South Africa

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the role of teacher leadership in the transformation of schools since the advent of the new political dispensation in South Africa. This qualitative study using structuration theory as a lens employed unstructured interviews with 44 teachers (including heads of department, deputy principals and principals) selected from previously advantaged and previously disadvantaged schools. Data were analysed using inductive qualitative data analysis. Among the findings of the study, teacher leadership is conceptualised differently among teachers with a privileged background and those from less privileged backgrounds. The study has shown that teacher leadership is a phenomenon that has political and professional implications and that it was influenced by past struggles of teachers in the previous education dispensation during the apartheid era. While the study has found that political teacher leadership was dominant, it recommends more training of teachers to enhance professional teacher leadership.

Keywords: education reform; teacher agency; teacher leadership; transformation; structuration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2020.107056

International Journal of Management in Education, 2020 Vol.14 No.3, pp.293 - 310

Received: 07 Feb 2019
Accepted: 30 Apr 2019
Published online: 01 May 2020 *

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